Somewhere far far away, in orbit around the fiery world of Char, Queen of Blades is experimenting with Warp Space. Since death of the Overmind, the Swarm was no longer able to open enormous warp rifts, and they had to resort to more crude methods of FTL travel. Leviathian lifeforms are a promising result, but still far from the original rifts. 

During one of the experiments, she manages to form her own minor rift with surprising ease.

<Broodmothers, protect the Swarm until my return, I'm going to investiage this>

She steps through the rift, and...

There's someone who looks like weird Succubus standing in the summonning circle.

Um. This is most certainly not a dretch. It seems like...a succubus? The demon does not look like a regular succubus, though. Still, she knows a conjuration accident when she sees one. She yells at the two students to get out of the room. If she's accidentally summoned something nasty, it's better for her not to have to worry about collateral damage.

"Hello? Who are you? What are you?" she asks in Abyssal. The thing she summoned does look demonic, so she'll speak Abyssal.

Yeah, she doesn't understand that. People look Terran, but the room doesn't look like any Terran facility. Quick checks: Can she move, can she read their minds, can she reach the Swarm?

The woman is wearing long, loose gray robes with a slightly shimmering cloak. On her head is something between a tiara and a leather strap studded with amethyst and sapphires. Despite this, she manages to make the outfit look austere rather than gaudy. The magic workroom they're in is made of smoothed gray stone – appears to be underground, and has wooden furniture. All of it has been pushed to the side to make way for the three circles of powdered silver on the ground, one of which the Queen of Blades is currently in. All of them are about ten feet in diameter. She can move freely inside the circle, but she can't touch the powdered silver, nor try to cross over the boundary.

This magic workroom is also used for Enchantment and Divination spell research, so it's not affected by the Mage's Private Sanctum cast over the entire Bronze Orchard. She can totally read Conradia's mind!

She's currently mildly panicking over the seemingly very powerful ?succubus? that she just accidentally summoned, and is afraid that she's going to have to fight. Hopefully her two students have sent for help. She runs toward the shelf and picks up a flask of holy water, preparing to cast Banishment – a spell to forcefully dismiss a conjured creature. She repeats what she said – Kerrigan would be able to pick out the meaning in her mind.

"Hello? Who are you? What are you?" she says again in Abyssal.

She cannot reach the Swarm from here. Indeed, there seem to be no Zerg in range at all.

Good. They are already afraid. 

Psionic communication: <I am the Queen of Blades, leader of the Swarm. I answered your call, for that place is new to me, and may be of interest to me and the Swarm>. 

Absence of Zerg is worrying. She should be able to reach them across the Sector, and even longer distances. How far did that rift take her?..

Huh? She is so confused. She might not be cleric, but she has studied the Abyss and its creatures. She has not heard of any 'Queen of Blades, leader of the Swarm'. What swarm? Deskari's? But Deskari had already been killed two decades ago by adventurers, and his realm taken over by Conrad and Damian. Okay. Okay. So she might have summoned something from very far away indeed.

Rather than speak, she instead pushes the thoughts she wants to convey at the forefront of her mind.

:Ah. My sincere apologies, in that case, Your Highness.: She bows at her hips, like she was taught in her youth. She does not kneel, however. Ugh. Dealing with royalty – or people with pretensions thereof – is giving her flashbacks to Cheliax (suffering, tyranny, torture, stifling), but she'd rather not offend the powerful outsider she just accidentally summoned. 

:I was attempting to teach students how to cast Lesser Planar Binding and did not attempt to conjure or call for you.:

She does not let go of the holy water flask and is ready to cast Banishment at a moment's notice. She hopes it'll go through, if she has to use it. Powerful outsiders tend to have spell resistance. She deals with demons as part of her job, so she has good spell penetration, but it might not be enough to pierce through the Queen of Blades' defenses.

Kerrigan isn't entirely getting the concepts of 'clerics', 'Abyss' and the like. 'Outsider' also has some weird connotations that don't seem to map. It does look like they want to send her back, and this place is... "fascinating" is probably not an emotion that she can properly exprience, but it's at least intriguing.

Probably she wants them to fear her slighly less, it's easier when they are feared enough that you are scared of going against her, but not so much that they try anyway.

<Impressive. I belive we can be of use to each other. Your weilding of "psionics" (translates to general 'magic', but with some mind-connotations sticking to it) seems more advanced than Terrans (humans) ever managed to achieve, but in other aspects, you seem to be lacking>.

'Psionics' translates as 'Enchantment-school magic' to her, and she becomes even more confused. 'Terrans' translates to an ethnicity of human.

:Enchantment? That's not my specialty school – I'm not that good at it. It's the Damianites that specialize in enchantment magic. Er, in which aspects do we seem to be lacking?:

She's hoping that help will arrive soon. Hopefully the two of them didn't just stay outside the door and actually called for someone. Like the Head Priests. She said that she came here of her own accord...which probably means that the Lesser Planar Binding's trap misfired and went to her, but she decided to answer its call anyway? Why would she want to do that? None of her abilities (save for mind-reading, it seems) can pass through the sigils she's drawn, and neither can she try to escape by teleporting away – the sigils function similarly to Dimensional Anchor – and she cannot disturb or cross over the powdered silver circle. She doesn't know her thoughts are being read, so she doesn't make an attempt to conceal her thoughts.

:Your Highness, I believe you said earlier that you came here of your own accord.: She wants to ask "Do you know where exactly you are?" but she wants to be a little more diplomatic. I mean, if she chose to come here by her own choice, she would think that the Queen would know where her destination would be, right?

:We were not prepared for your arrival. This summoning spell was meant to be a teaching lesson for my wizards. Did you want to have an audience with the High Priests?: The two of them have never granted formal audiences before – this place is supposed to be secret after all, but presumably if you're a very powerful outsider, you can just ignore that convenient limitation and just show up asking to talk to someone.

<Yes, I would like to meet "High Priests". I am always looking for new opportunities to improve the Swarm, and this seems like a promising cooperation>

And while they are still alone in the room, she tries to gently touch Conradia's mind, to implant a desire-to-help-her, but is ready to pull back if she notices any sign of detection - they seem quite certain their protections are adequate, but so thought many of those who experimented on Zerg before, with less than desirable results for them.

The summoning circle blocks the attempt, although Conradia does not notice. The circle also does not shift at all.

She opens the door to call for either Rendon or Magnus – the high priests, but it seems that they have already been sent for by her students, who are flanking Magnus. She gives a quick summary of the situation and lets them in, telling them to stand down. The Queen of Blades does not seem overtly hostile, not that she would expect her summoning circle to fail.

The man that enters is stunningly beautiful. He's wearing similar robes to Conradia, but more ornate and detailed, and the outline of his muscles can be seen below the cloth. They're colored purple and gold. He has a similar band on his head, but it has even more gems. There's an aura about him that seems to fill the room. It's a frightening aura, although there's the sense that it's actively being suppressed by him. He has a similar cape to Conradia, but this one has an embroidered symbol on it – an inflorescence of violet heliotrope flowers. On his hips is some sort of chain with spikes and blades coming off it – clearly some kind of weapon. 

He speaks in the same language as Conradia, in Abyssal.

"We greet you, Queen of Blades. I am the High Priest Magnus Sundheim, servant of Damian, the Fragrant Petal, the Lord of Flowers and Allures. May we know the purpose of your visit? Where is your realm located?" His speech sounds refined and his voice sounds lovely to listen to. It's clear that his Charisma is well above normal levels. He's assuming that the Queen of Blades is some sort of herald of a demon lord, although why they decided to come here via entering a Planar Binding circle, he has no idea. Heralds usually have Greater Teleport – why not just use that and teleport into the Bronze Orchard, or just outside it?

Wow. The not-succubus is very attractive! Very scary looking, but he loves that aesthetic, actually. Only the headband's boost to Wisdom allows him to continue undistracted. 

The two fifth-circle wizards leave the room, and only Magnus and Conradia remain.

<Greetings, High Priest. I come here looking for opportunities to enhance the Swarm - my servants - and I believe this world may hold many such opportunities. My Swarm holds most of the Koprulu Sector (image: multiple planets) under its control>.

The man is impressive. Stunningly beautiful doesn't exactly register to her mind, but his aura of fear pressing against her mind does, though she is able to separate it, at least in this held-back state. The weapon is less surprising than can initially be assumed of someone coming from a higher-tech world - Zerg have long claws and blades and spikes in combat - though it does seem unweildy.

"very attractive" is a useful thing to be! She's not used to employing it - she's visibly Zerg, and that usually prevents that from working with Terrans - but she can adapt.

He – 

Wow. Wow. This entity controls multiple planets? Just...all under her control? Not even Pharasma, the creator of the world, has control over any one single planet. Surely, someone controlling that much territory has to be a god. But...she doesn't exactly have the Overwhelming Presence of one. And it doesn't explain why she would come here in such a weird way, through a Planar Binding spell. What god would allow themselves to be bound so? Although if she is a god, then presumably she could just step over the powdered silver circle like it was nothing.

Magnus isn't as Intelligent as Conradia, both now and before enhancements, but his headband enhances Splendor and Wisdom as well, whereas hers doesn't.

He sends his thoughts via Telepathy.

:Your Highness, do you come from another plane? Do you come from outside Pharasma's Creation?: He's starting to think more and more that this was some sort of huge accident.

Wow, that was a lot of complicated concepts in his thoughts. "God" almost maps to "Xel'Naga", but in a weird way. "Pharasma's Creation"? Did she somehow end up in a different universe? Her initial warp tunnel certainly wasn't powerful enough to send her far from Koprulu, but if she stumbled onto universe-travel, it's possible the energy calculations work completely differently...

Well, in any way, she can't really evade such questions for much longer, so it may be time to let some her confusion slip, and hope they'll spill more.

<I believe that might be the case. I wasn't looking for specific target, so perhaps I found something very unusual indeed>.

Okay. This is something that requires divine consultation. Indeed, her coming here might even be the result of divine intervention.

:I will have to leave to pray to Damian for guidance.: And to tell Rendon, the other High Priest, what exactly just happened. 

He instructs Conradia to keep watch over the Queen of Blades, and then leaves.

God, what a mess. She takes a deep sigh. 

:So, are you a demon, or are you not a demon? If you're from outside Pharasma's Creation, that is. Usually, demons speak audibly in Abyssal despite having telepathy, since telepathy usually disconcerts people, and because it's easier to address many people at once when speaking audibly. Can you speak Abyssal? If you can say a sentence or two of your language, I'll be able to talk to you – I have permanent Tongues (her thoughts: magical translation spell) – or is it that you are incapable of speech?:

She only now notices that yes, the Queen is really hot. She had been too distracted by the prospect of danger, but that has since lessened. Not entirely, though, her holy water flask is still in her left hand. But would it even work to augment the power of Banishment? If she's not a regular outsider like demons are, holy water might just be regular water to her. She sure seems evil, though. She has that...aesthetic going on. She's read theological debates concerning whether aesthetic tastes are related to alignment.

"I believe I'm not a 'demon' under your classification. The whole concept of 'outsider' didn't really go though". Her voice sounds human, but slighly unnatural, and with a coherent echo following it. 

Noticing Conradia's thoughts, she will slightly adjust her behaviour to evoke more feeling of "hot". It's too early to try to fully capitalize on the emotion, but it's a opening that is wise to widen.

"I...see," she replies in Terran. Huh, this language is well suited to humans. Many outsider languages like Abyssal were clearly not spoken originally by humans. They have weird phonologies and grammar. But this one feels closer to what she's familiar with. 

"Outsiders are entities which exist in the Outer Planes. Demons" there's no word that quite corresponds to the word she's looking for in Terran so instead spoke the Abyssal word "are outsiders are associated with the Abyss, the Chaotic Evil afterlife," she says. She has to remind herself that this entity was likely from outside Pharasma's Creation and so likely had a different system. She has to replace many words with Abyssal since Terran has no equivalent.

"Pharasma, the creator of the cosmos, assigns mortals to one of nine afterlives based on their life philosophy and how they acted while they were alive. She sorts people based on whether they were Lawful or Chaotic, or Good or Evil, or in the middle of either of the two axes. We tend to summon demons a lot because we worship demon lords, who are divinities which dwell in the Abyss. I worship Conrad, but Magnus – the High Priest you just met – worships Damian. They are closely related to one another" they are lovers "and so our churches are very closely aligned."

What a system! It's clearly designed, much more than her own universe, though that is to be expected if they have "creator of the cosmos" as an entity that is active.

She is, of course, not telling them any of that, or her thoughts about similar powers in her own world, not that she know very much.

They can spend some time talking about general concepts of this world. Kerrigan doesn't know enough to successfully misdirect their expectation of what exactly she doesn't know, so she's gonna lose some moew of her Totally In Control appearance, but with a world this different, she can't expect to maintain it for long anyway.

While maintaining the conversation, she will also start to carefully poke the circle containing her with various psionics, looking for a leak or perhaps a weak point. Conradia is certain that the circle is sound, so she's not hoping for much, but she doesn't like being confined. She still wants to avoid them noticing that, more than she wants to see if she could escape with her full power.

"It will take them a while to pray. Likely up to half an hour or more, though I imagine that given the gravity of the situation, the gods would deign to grant us visions of what we're supposed to do. So, since your world is outside Pharasma's Creation, what is the divine situation there?" She's already forgotten about the 'respect to nobles' thing she's supposed to do, since the churches of Conrad and Damian have very flat hierarchies and they refrain from using titles and honorifics.

The circle remains sound! However, poking around does imply that the spell isn't quite stable – it operates on a cycle. In about a day's time or so, there may be an opportunity for her to escape if she's able to channel enough psychic energy to break it during a weak moment.

She usually prefers respectful adresses from her servants, but is quite used to others, especially Terrans, not bothering about that. She can work more casual attitude.

Well, she can answer about gods, it's not like there's much strategic info in what she knows.

"We don't have gods that can be preyed to, but I think the closest concept would be 'Xel'Naga', they are rumoured to be the ancient race, responsible for creation of the universe. There are people convinced that they left some grand prophecy around, but nothing useful has yet come from searches for them". She doesn't mention she is one of those searching.

The circle is really inconvenient! And also really impressive how finely they can cage her powers, she would expect the only way to do that would be flooding the psionic field with interference, but they certainly aren't doing that!

"Huh, so you don't have divine magic at all? The servants of gods: clerics, paladins, inquisitors, and warpriests, are able to cast divine magic granted to them by the god they worship. You have to have a special relationship with your god in order to become one of them, however. I worship Conrad but He hasn't turned me into one of his clerics. There do exist other people which are able to cast divine magic granted by sources other than gods. For example, druids and rangers receive divine magic by communing with nature. Do you have those? Or do you only have arcane magic?"

Xel'Naga, hm, she'll file that one away to see if she might be able to get some information on them. Perhaps they're related to the Outer Gods – the gods that Pharasma excludes from Her Creation.

"No, we don't have anything like that, and even 'arcane magic' doesn't quite line up. 'Psionics' is the closest - some people can do seemingly-impossible things by manipulating certain form of energy with their mind, but it's rare".

????? they don't even have arcane magic ?????

"So...so how were you able to get here without arcane magic? The spell I cast wouldn't be powerful enough to summon an entity like you normally. Your world really doesn't have arcane magic?" She supposes that it isn't completely implausible – her world could simply be a dead magic zone, except she keeps talking about psionics, who seem to be some sort of sorcerer? (her thoughts: bloodline transmitted magic powers)

"...Is psionics rare in your world? In ours, magic is very common. Many things are done using magic or magic items. For example, we clean our laundry using a spell called Prestidigitation. Many commoners can't afford magic, but even to them, magic isn't something extraordinary. Small villages will usually still have a first-circle" (her thoughts: weakest caster) "wizard who can cast Prestidigitation for laundry or Mending to repair objects."

She has Prestidigitation, Mending, Detect Magic, and Mage Hand prepared today. Maybe she should demonstrate one. She's kind of afraid of doing so, though, for fear that the powdered silver circle might be disturbed. If it's ever broken, or an object laid across it, the spell would be instantly broken. Had she known that she was about to summon an otherworldly powerful entity, she would have used the dedicated carved summoning circles in the conjuration workroom, whose divots prevent the powdered silver from being disturbed accidentally. Too late for that now, though. She wanted her students to know what it's like to do a summoning in the field, and also develop discipline regarding summoning circles.

"I am myself a powerful psion." She hopes that's a vague enough answer for 'how ere you able to get here', and yet not revealing the specifics.

For psionics questions, she's going to answer them from the perspective of Terrans. It would seem more natural to her, and avoid revealing information about Zerg and Protoss:
"Psionics is indeed rare, and even people who have often don't have much power for it. They are recruited by the government and trained, but there's not much of them".

Weakness of the circle: identified. Since Conradia was so sure in her safety previously, it's probablly impossible to just lift a rock and lay it across, but a more subtle approach might work.

"Can you demonstrate your magic? I'm interested in how it compares to my powers.", she wants to lift something in the air, but there's absolutely nothing inside the circle. Oh well. 

She reaches to her wing, breaks off one of the tips, and holds it a few centimeters above her hand, showing to Conradia.

(Behind her, the wing restores in a matter of seconds)